


How Did I Lose It When I Was Right There?

by CasiplesCastle



Series: Someone Take Me Home [5]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avengers Family, Avengers Feels, F/M, Gen, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Protective Avengers, Sokovia Accords, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony's in trouble and the old gang's coming together to bust him out
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-22
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2019-04-26 08:14:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14397969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CasiplesCastle/pseuds/CasiplesCastle
Summary: I know you’re doing what you believe in, and that’s all any of us can do. That’s all any of us should. So, no matter what, I promise you, if you need us, if you need me, I’ll be there.Though Steve would be hard pressed to admit, he’d always believed that the power the world entrusted to Tony would’ve terrified him if he didn’t know for certain that the man would sooner sacrifice himself to fly a nuke through a hole into space than see the world fall apart.





	How Did I Lose It When I Was Right There?

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: None of the Marvel Characters and Worlds are mine.
> 
> A/N: So, Avengers 3 is upon us and I think it's about time I posted this. Just a little personal opinion about this fic, I think Steve deserves a little more credit about the Accords and the direction it could have gone. I mean, if it was real, I would support it but I wouldn't trust it. Just saying. This is going to be a different take from all the other pieces I’ve already written so far. I just think that this deserves that amount of detail to capture each falling domino instead of just glossing over the events like the other ones. Hopefully it turns out okay. Let me know what you think.
> 
> Also, just a heads up, this might be updated slower than the rest because I’m currently neck-deep in finishing my Masters. The research and the exams are killing me. Thanks. Enjoy. Let me know what you think.

The wind blew through their hair almost violently as the sleek, nearly obsidian jet landed smoothly on the helipad in front of them.

It was a standard SHIELD-issued Quin-jet, a transport Steve has not seen in years since the days of the original Avengers. Though he wondered why, it didn’t surprise him to see the jets put into active commission once again. After the long, grueling months of televised debates, violent protests, and an unjustified arrest (as Steve had initially feared where the Accords would lead), SHIELD had been permitted to rebuild their organization under the direct and scrutinizing supervision of the Sokovia Accords and the United Nations.

During the original Avengers’ time away, SHIELD’s slow but steady rise had been highly publicized and documented by every news channel in the world in the most vicious ways imaginable. Under the direction of the not-so-dead, former Agent Philip Coulson, SHIELD reentered the world in a graceful, defiant storm, matching the parallel might of the blunt hurricane of its counterpart; SWORD.

SWORD was a whole other monstrous battle all by itself.

The Sentient World Observation and Response Division or SWORD came into fruition under the recommendation and initiative of none other than one Anthony Edward Stark, the Invincible Iron Man, leader and figurehead of the new Avengers.

Well, _former_ leader and figurehead of the Avengers.

In spite of the turmoil his actions have caused these last few months, Tony had truly outdone himself in ways Steve never could’ve imagined. Just as he thought the world has reached its limit agreeing with Tony, it dived head first into the mud and resurfaced with something as frightening as an organization as volatile and intimidating as its name. Most surprisingly (because Steve still didn’t know if he should be horrified or proud of it), it’s now well underway in its review by the United Nations, proving to everyone it’s as unstoppable and unyielding as the metaphorical steel of its blade.

Though Steve would be hard pressed to admit, he’d always believed that the power the world entrusted to Tony would’ve terrified him if he didn’t know for certain that the man would sooner sacrifice himself to fly a nuclear warhead through a hole into space than to see the world fall apart.

When they first met, Steve had believed every word of SHIELD’s recruitment assessment report and had seen all the necessary video footage of the Stark scion to back up their facts. He thought he knew everything there was to know about Anthony Stark, from his careless weapons designing to his womanizing and narcissistic lifestyle. He remembered thinking how Howard would’ve been greatly disappointed if he saw what became of his only son.

But Tony had always enjoyed proving Captain America wrong.

After all these years, Steve can now freely admit that his words were unnecessarily sharp that day on the helicarrier. His insults then were biting, with razor sharp edges that—if truth be told—stemmed from the pain of waking to a different time in a strange, new world; realizing that everyone he had ever cared about have lived a whole lifetime without him while he slept beneath the ice. He hadn’t been ready for what he’d woken up to when Fury came to recruit him to find the Tesserac. He hadn’t been ready to face this shinier century and Tony embodied everything different in the rabbit hole he’d fallen in.

Tony became the explosive reminder of everything Steve had lost.

But Steve eventually learned that Tony was more than that.

Tony was a futurist, the epitome of self-reinvention, the definition of an oncoming storm. The man could certainly achieve miracles if he put his mind to it. The Sokovia Accords paying out, the growing list of the Avengers roster, and the Avengers compound turned into a sanctuary for Enhanced individuals, SHIELD’s reinstatement, and SWORD were just some of the more recent proof of that.

Tony, Steve knew deep down, had more than earned the right to tell him: _I told you so_.

His attention was once again drawn back to the sound of the jet’s wheels touching down on the tarmac. As the jet powered down, Steve stood in rigid attention with Sam and Clint flanking either side of him while Wanda stood at Clint’s other side and Scott stood by Sam’s. T’Challa stood a few feet behind them with his Dora Milaje in attention around him. He knew T’Challa knew more than he let on but the king hadn’t been very forthcoming with the details. T’Challa had only accepted their arrival and had led them wordlessly to the back entrance of the palace where the Quin-jet had been designated to descend.

But that didn’t matter now. They were going to hear the truth from Tony himself.

Steve had recalled them all together to Wakanda after he received the clipped text from the disposable phone he kept with him at all times.

_SOS. Rendezvous Wakanda._

It wasn’t the call that he’d been expecting but hearing from Tony after he’d been unjustly arrested and thrown to jail while the rest of them helplessly watched from afar had been more than enough to send him running back to Wakanda to regroup with the original Avengers.

He wasn’t going to fail Tony again. Not this time.

The ramp lowered slowly and Spider-Man and Iron Man descended from the jet.

Steve felt the weight on his shoulders lift at the sight of Tony’s red, gold, and black armor nearly glowing under the glare of the harsh African sun. It’s been years since he’d last seen the armored genius and to say they hadn’t parted on good terms was the understatement of the century. The look of fear and pain in Tony’s eyes still haunted him in his sleep. The sound of the armor breaking and the arc reactor shattering echoed in his mind even in the light of day. The words that were called to him in grief still made his heart painfully clench.

Steve and Bucky may have emerged from the battle bloody and beaten, but he knew Tony—even encased in one of the greatest armor ever built in human history—had been far worse. Tony had always taken the blows to his heart a lot harder than a punch in the face.

After all, Tony is the most human of them all.

He shook off his grim thoughts, telling himself he’d done all he could to protect everyone involved. Mistakes have been made on both sides and there was no way to change it now. Although Steve regretted where it came to, he did what he thought was right and he stayed true to what he believed in. It was all anyone can ever ask of him.

Tony and Spider-Man stopped a few feet away from them, unreadable beneath their masks. In red, blue, gold, and black, they looked powerful and heroic, stoic like soldiers. They stood together in silence for a long period of time. Seconds ticked by and the longer they waited, the more the tension built around them.

“So, are we going to stand here all day or what?” Clint snapped, glaring at the two fully armored heroes.

“That depends, Barton,” a voice spoke from behind Tony and Spider-Man. Nick Fury had emerged unnoticed from the jet. “Have you pulled your head out of your ass?”

They all turned to the former director with varying grimaced looks plastered on their faces. The last time they met with Fury hadn’t been pleasant. Natasha had gathered them all to have Fury and Coulson get the point across that their interference will most certainly not be _fucking_ appreciated. Fury sauntered to them with all the lethal grace of a lion, ready to pounce on them any moment he deemed fit they needed another ass-whooping.

“I thought he was in prison?” Barton shot back, pointing at Tony.

Fury’s mouth was set in a thin line. “That’s what we’re here about.”

Steve turned to the stoic armor. “Tony?”

There was a moment of pause, the armor’s helm turning to Fury, seeking for some sort of confirmation which the one-eyed man gave with a meaningful nod. Steve found it alarmingly wrong for Tony to seek _anyone’s_ permission to do something as simple as speak to Steve.

Tony never followed anyone outside a battlefield.

Just before he can say anything, the armor parted elegantly, neat folds of red and gold metal giving way for a teenager to step out of the armor to give Steve the most unimpressed look he’s ever been given in this century. He was dressed in light combat boots, dark, fitting slacks, and a well-fitting shirt that almost resembled the innermost layers of a SHIELD agent’s standard uniform. Steve’s eyebrows shot up in befuddlement.

“I’m Harley. Harley Keener.” The teen greeted with a bland smile, fishing the familiar disposable phone from his pant pocket. “I texted you the SOS.”

Spider-Man took off his mask and if the sight of Harley’s young face surprised him, the other teen’s youthful, determined expression only made exasperation bloom in Steve’s already boggled mind.

“And I’m Peter. Peter Parker.” The other teen introduced without preamble, his tone grave. “Tony’s in trouble and we need your help to find him.”

“Why the hell is Stark letting these minors run around in armored suits?” Sam accused, displeased.

“First of all, and this is really important; Tony’s not making us do anything.” Harley retorted as he rolled his eyes. He crossed his arms over his chest, Peter stood beside him with a look of indignation. “He’ll probably do something extremely embarrassing when he finds out I _borrowed_ one of his suits to go on an unsanctioned mission, entering an active warzone with no backup, and issued a radio-silence under the threat of heavy political ramifications. And he’ll make sure Peter gets grounded for the rest of his life for using the heavily armed Spidey-suit outside New York under limited—correction: _without_ —supervision because apparently Nicky the Pirate here has only agreed to drop us off.”

Fury glared pointedly at the back of the teen’s head. Harley gave him another bland look, continuing as if Nick didn’t promise murder in a glance. “Second, _Tony’s in trouble_. I don’t particularly care about how old I am when he’s out there, _in danger_. Like, the age requirement is temporarily suspended until further notice. It’ll resume once Tony’s safe and has the energy to chew us out for doing something as stupid as calling _you_. We’re all he’s got and, unfortunately, you’re all _we’ve_ got. Time is of the essence, people. Will you help us or not?”

The teen didn’t even look winded after his tirade. Harley crossed his arms in defiance while Peter nervously fiddled with his mask, both looking ready to pounce at a moment’s notice. The former Avengers gawked at them and Steve couldn’t help but glance back to T’Challa, gauging the authenticity of the king’s reaction. He looked grim, his mouth in a dignified grimace.

Tony is truly in trouble.

“How do we know we can trust you?” asked Wanda skeptically, eying the suit of armor with caution.

Peter shrugged, looking mildly irritated. “I don’t know how to prove it to you that you wouldn’t find a way to just conspire against us.”

“We’ll help.” Steve answered before the argument escalated.

“We will?” asked Scott, surprise coloring his words.

“Steve, it’s _Stark_.” Clint protested, rolling his eyes. “He got himself thrown to prison for a reason. If he can escape the Ten Rings in a suit of armor he built _in a cave_ , he can handle a few brick walls.”

Peter’s fists curled and his expression darkened while Harley had very nearly clobbered Clint in the face if not for Fury physically halting both teens to stand down with a firm grip on each of their shoulders.

“Barton, shut up. That’s an _order_.” Fury commanded. Clint looked defiant for a moment but his mouth remained shut. Fury turned to T’Challa. “Your Majesty, if it pleases you, may we continue this somewhere more private?”

T’Challa nodded. With a gesture from their sovereign, the king’s aides stationed themselves around the former Avengers, Harley, Peter, and Nick to escort their guests inside the palace, the Iron Man suit following behind them on auto-pilot.

The party moved through the halls in silence but the tension brewed in the air like a balloon waiting to burst. When they’ve been shown through a conference room and everyone was seated, Harley and Peter took the floor.

“Your Majesty, permission to commandeer your holograms?” asked Harley, already moving to the front of the long mahogany table where he was most visible.

T’Challa smirked with tolerant amusement coloring his tone. “Permission granted, Mr. Keener.”

“Okay,” Peter announced, clasping his hands together. “Before we start, let’s do current news. Where are everyone on what’s happening to the world and to Tony?”

Fury grinned as Peter pointed at the first rogue Avenger he saw like he’s just demonstrating something in a class instead of briefing veteran superheroes. It happened to be Steve.

“Tony was arrested about a month ago on charges of treason.” Steve answered dutifully. “He and Hope van Dyne have been lobbying for SHIELD’s reinstatement and SWORD’s approval for months. SHIELD is now underway to being reinstated with Coulson at the helm and SWORD is still being subjected for review.”

“Pepper Stark has been making a lot of noise to have Tony released.” Sam provided when Steve finished. “She’s rearing her army of lawyers’ nasty head at the US government and tore their treason arrest warrant apart. There’s growing unrest against the US government about it which is growing more violent every day because Stark still hasn’t been released.”

“And now we know why.” Clint muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“The people are beginning to see this as a conspiracy to move against the Avengers to control them.” Sam continued as if Clint never spoke.

“Stark also has children on the way.” Wanda added helpfully. Everyone turned to her and she shrugged shyly, not meeting anyone’s eye.

Peter nodded. “Yeah, that’s the gist of it.”

“But not quite.” Harley quipped. A hologram keyboard appeared in front of him. Hacking into the system with a few lines of code, he showed multiple footage and data on the screens at once. The date and time of most of the footage puts it about a year ago, during the infamous mission of the new Avengers in Iran.

“What is all this?” Scott asked when no one spoke up, eyes locked on the image of Hope in battle wearing the Wasp suit.

“The organization that took Stark is believed to be a fusion of the Ten Rings, Hydra, and ISIS.” Fury answered, stepping forward. “They have the combination of Stark Industries-grade and alien-tech weapons and Hydra tactical training. During the excursion to extract the Iranian Supreme Leader and other hostages in Iran, the enemy faction managed to incapacitate Rhodes with heavy fire long enough to steal his suit of armor. Stark and his team succeeded to save Rhodes and bring him safely back to base but the suit was never recovered. The official story is that Rhodes sustained heavy damage while in battle and Stark has been commissioned to build him a new suit. Although, since the incident, finding the missing armor has been top priority for the Avengers and its reserves.”

“ _What_?” Clint spat out, eyes narrowing in disbelief. “You mean, they had Stark’s suit and tech out there all this time?! They buried the truth from the public that one of the greatest armors in the world fell into enemy hands?!”

“The Avengers have been trying to locate them since,” Fury continued, giving him a glare. “This group is led by a man that goes by the codename Spymaster. No one has ever seen him except for his most trusted inner circle.”

“Kind of like Voldemort,” Peter muttered to Harley. Harley smirked and so did Scott who heard them. Fury looked even more chagrined to be babysitting teenagers but ignored them.

“The movements of his organization are quick, precise, and deadly.” Fury continued, bringing hologram after hologram of past attacks. “They strike full force and disappear when their objective is accomplished.”

“I thought Stark was supposed to be the best in the business in creating armored tech barring Wakanda.” Scott spoke up, clearly befuddled. Everyone turned to him. “Doesn’t he have like emergency protocols in case these things happen? Like some sort of fail-safe?”

“He does. _Redundantly_.” Harley answered with a deadpan expression, voice oozing with sarcasm.

“Contrary to popular belief, there are other _countless_ geniuses and experts out there in the world.” Peter quipped, annoyance clearly bit back to keep the illusion that both teens weren’t at the end of their limited patience. Fury has now subtly stepped back into the shadows as both teens commanded the former Avengers’ attention. “They aren’t that rare. True, Tony’s, like, one of the more unique ones but— _ultimately_ —still just _one_ person. I mean, Vanko and AIM are prime examples of that.”

“And these people are Hydra, ISIS, and the Ten Rings combined led by someone who’s practically a ghost.” Harley added gravely, eyes lingering at the sight of the Ten Rings in the data they presented. He turned back to the others in the room. “With Tony’s history with the Ten Rings, I don’t think they’ll take his abilities for granted ever again. Especially with his tech. Even if it was one of Tony’s earliest designs, Mark II was riddled with a minefield of emergency protocols.”

“They’ve managed to cloak the suit’s emergency frequencies so well, we can’t even trace any of its mobilized trails.” Peter took up in the report, changing the holograms to the flight paths of an armored suit. “Even when the suits are damaged or powered down, they emit signals in low frequencies to evade normal scanning technology unless they were made specifically by Tony or maybe Wakanda. The suits are also keyed-in to automated protocols responded by FRIDAY’s system in case of emergencies. That’s how the rescue team found Tony in Siberia after his suit powered down.”

“But it seems like the bad guys found out about it and blocked the signal frequencies.” Harley said as he changed the data to the Iron Man’s system and biometric protocols. “The best guess the Avengers had so far was that either someone as brilliant as Tony in hacking and tech are helping them—which is almost doubtful since they left no cyber trail _at all_ , and Tony and Vision’s been looking into it for _months_ —or that someone with Enhanced abilities is actively stopping it from emitting. Dr. Strange and his sorcerer friends tried every tracking spell and enchantment they can find but since the armor is not biological and has no magical signature, it’s harder to locate it. They’ve also contacted King T’Challa’s sister, Princess Shuri, if she has anything to add but…”

T’Challa took that as an opportunity to answer him. “Sadly, even with all her abilities, Shuri has still not found any other way to locate the suit that the Avengers have not tried. But she is still searching. I give you my assurance as her brother and king that she is doing all she can.”

Both teens nodded in grim understanding, moving back to the rogue Avengers.

“What about locating Stark himself through Dr. Strange’s magic?” Sam asked, leaning against the table.

“He tried that when Tony hasn’t been heard from during his second week in prison,” Peter answered, shrugging half-heartedly. “But he’s being shielded by a powerful artefact of magic as far as Wong and Stephen can guess. So, now that we know he’s missing, there are speculations that we aren’t only dealing with ISIS, the Ten Rings, and Hydra, but we’re also dealing with sorcerers, too.”

“The new Avengers have two powerful artefacts as well,” Wanda spoke up, leaning forward from her seat. “The Mind and Time Stones are unchallenged in the known universe. Not unless—”

“Not unless we’re dealing with another Infinity Stone.” Harley finished for her, nodding in agreement. “Yeah, we considered it. It isn’t unlikely. You see why we need your help on this?”

“Why aren’t the entire might of the Avengers and the ATUs being deployed to handle this?” Steve finally asked. It’s been bothering him since the briefing began. They couldn’t seriously be considering that SHIELD and SWORD’s problems are more important than another Infinity Stone and the War Machine suit in enemy hands.

They couldn’t _seriously_ be considering that bureaucratic backlashes and public opinion are more important than _Tony’s_ _life_.

“Because, Rogers,” Fury spoke up from where he leaned against the wall, coming forward to take everyone’s attention once more. He looked weary and old. “We aren’t risking everything we’ve built—everything _Tony_ has sacrificed—for this. No matter how rough the going gets, this has to _keep going_. We’ve put everything we had on seeing SHIELD and SWORD go through. Tony knew what he was doing. He knew what he was getting into. He knew how high the stakes were stacked against him. The Avengers and its reserves aren’t mobilizing because they are needed elsewhere.  The ATU aren’t deploying because the governments aren’t aware or recognizing the immediate threat upon Tony Stark’s life. We have no legal proof that he isn’t where he’s supposed to be. We had to pull that information through more creative and illegal means which cannot come to light during SWORD’s review. We are literally on our own. For now.”

“For the record, this is why we went against the Accords in the first place.” Clint gritted out. “They are literally held back by politics bullshit!”

“What happened to all of Stark’s amendments?” Sam demanded, incensed. “What happened to all the reserves and the protocols that he put in place in the Accords to ensure that the Avengers will always have a choice to go if they know they’re needed somewhere else? This is kind of the best time to be _needed_ _elsewhere_.”

“Our hands are tied.” Fury muttered darkly. He knew too damn well they were needed elsewhere.

“Fury,” Steve said, dangerously calm. “This is _Tony_ we’re talking about.”

“We’ve established that since we got here,” Harley spoke up, sounding mildly exasperated, with a determined glint in his eyes. He gestured for the data and footage to disappear from view, everything ready to go. Peter stood in ready attention next to him, surveying the group of former Avengers in defiance. “So, are you coming or what?”

Steve turned to his team, their identical looks of resolve painted clearly on their faces.

“Suit up. We leave in an hour.”


End file.
